Every year many internationals travel to Palestine to help with the autumn olive harvest. Alys Jenkins, an activist from Lancaster, returns to Palestine to find ordinary people facing intimidation and humilation from illegal settlements and the israeli army during this crucial time.

06 May 2006

James O'Nions writes from Athens. The 4th European Social Forum started in Athens on Thursday. Previous ESFs have been around a year apart, but it has been a year and a half since the last one. Those who remember the vast distances between sites at the Paris ESF were relieved to find that the event was all on one site, albeit one which is some distance from the centre of the city.

19 March 2006

Joe Zacune, 16 March: Today´s demo was the largest ever mass
mobilization against the privatization water. Over 20,000 people turned
up to protest against the corporate takeover- including indigenous
groups, urban social movements, Zapatistas, anarchists, campesinos and
other grassroots organizations. The Mexican presence and organisation
was amazing. They came in their masses and were dancing, shouting,
singing, playing drums for this massive four-hour rally. The World
Water Council must be kicking themselves- they made a big mistake when
they decided to hold the Forum in Mexico.

18 March 2006

The blue pearl necklace fell out of the corporate press pack like an unwanted christmas cracker toy. It was accompanied by a new-age sounding insert that explained that the necklace "represented the transparency and fragility of water, a crucial resource that needs our constant care."

The media pack was embossed with glossy photos of water works across the world and talked of dignity, tolerance, rights, progress and transparency.

Clearly the Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico which has been condemned by activists as a front for promoting worldwide water privatisation is seeking an image change.

16 March 2006

Where ever there is a conference to talk about poverty, you can normally find luxury hotels full of delegates. Mexico is no different as the Fourth World Water Forum kicks off today.

The city is full of international delegates from around the world making emotional speeches about the three thousand nine hundred children who will die by the end of today due to unclean drinking water who then head to their hotels to drink imported French mineral water with their sumptuous dinners.

I have come with a delegation from Bolivia, but even though I am surrounded by endless posters and booklets of water droplets, waterfalls, kids playing in rivers, it still at times needs some effort to remember why I am here. The reality of the 200,000 people who live on my doorstep in Bolivia who still don't have drinking water and who have led massive rebellions to end disastrous water privatisation experiments can seem very far away.

25 February 2006

Herbert
Docena writes: Yesterday morning, President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo declared an indefinite "state of national
emergency" in the Philippines. Issued on the very week when
Filipinos were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the "People
Power" uprising which ended Ferdinand Marcos' 14-year
dictatorship, Arroyo's order authorizes the police and the military
the power to do everything necessary to neutralize "enemies"
of the state, bans all protest rallies, and threatens to take over
media outlets. Effectively placing the country under martial law,
Arroyo has restored what Filipinos ended twenty years ago.

About
10,000 of us defied the President's order and marched on Manila's
busiest highway. We were violently dispersed. Twenty-six of us,
including minors who were beaten up by the police, were arrested.

24 February 2006

Jordan
Flaherty writes: In
New Orleans’ Central Business District, a prominent billboard
advertising Southern Comfort liquor proclaims “Nothing Stops Mardi
Gras. Nothing.” The festive ad haunts me, seeming callous and
cruel, "you've faced a huge loss, and now we want to use your
city and cultural traditions to sell a lot of alcohol."

Citywide,
Mardi Gras is everywhere, but not without controversy. Many are angry
at the idea of a huge party taking place while bodies are still being
recovered in Ninth Ward houses, And in diaspora communities such as
Atlanta, there is a lot of anger at the idea of a huge party going
one while they are kept out. A past leader of the Zulu Mardi Gras
Krewe even sued his organization (unsuccessfully) to stop them from
parading this year.

21 February 2006

Apologies that this blog has been a little slow of late. In the meantime, you might be interested in Red Pepper editor Hilary Wainwright's contribution to a debate on socialism in The Guardian (her piece is a response to Martin Kettle).

02 February 2006

Heidi Bachram writes:On 28 January at the UK based Phone Co-op’s
Annual General Meeting, members revolted against the company’s use
of so-called ‘carbon offsets’. Member Andrew Wood put forward a
motion to remove discontinue the practice and called such offsets,
provided by Oxford-based firm Climate Care, a “scam” warning
fellow members that their use “seriously threatens the ethical
reputation of our brand.” He added that according to the Phone
Co-op’s own surveys, 70% of its customers move their telecom
services to the company because of its rigorous ethics and
environmental commitment. Wood stated that because of the
controversial nature of carbon offsets, the Phone Co-op’s
reputation could be harmed.